Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the National Day reception on the eve of the 71st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, China on September 30, 2020.
Thomas Peter | Reuters
BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping will deliver a speech via video conference on Thursday at a world climate summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden, state media reported on Wednesday.
Many expected the leaders of the world’s two largest economies – and the largest carbon polluters – to have their first meeting outside the summit as tensions between the two countries warmed. Since taking office in January, Biden has called China the “most serious competitor” in the United States, as he maintains former President Donald Trump’s tough stance on Beijing.
Xi and Biden spoke by phone in February, just before the China Spring Festival.
Reducing carbon emissions is one of the few areas China and the United States have said they could cooperate with, and it aligns with Xi’s announcement last year that the Asian nation aims to achieve maximum carbon emissions in 2030.
Over the weekend, the United States and China jointly issued a comprehensive statement on how the two countries would work together to “tackle the climate crisis.”
The statement followed after two days of talks in Shanghai between US special envoy for climate John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua.
On Tuesday, Xi said at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia that China would support “green” development, especially with regard to the Road and Belt Initiative. Critics say the infrastructure development program is part of Beijing’s attempt to increase its influence among the least developed countries in the region.
Xi did not mention the name of the United States in his speech, but said that large countries should behave responsibly and that China would not seek hegemony or “a sphere of influence.”
The announcement Wednesday that Xi would attend the climate summit comes more than three weeks after Biden invited 40 world leaders to attend the two-day meeting scheduled for Thursday and Friday.